Burned by Magic: a New Adult Fantasy Novel (The Baine Chronicles Book 1)
The first book in the hot new adult fantasy series readers are comparing to Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs.
In the city of Solantha, mages rule absolute, with shifters considered second-class citizens and humans something in between. No one outside the mage families are allowed to have magic, and anyone born with it must agree to have it stripped from them to avoid execution.
Sunaya Baine, a shifter-mage hybrid, has managed to keep her unruly magic under wraps for the last twenty-four years. But while chasing down a shifter-hunting serial killer, she loses control of her magic in front of witnesses, drawing the attention of the dangerous and enigmatic Chief Mage.
Locked up in the Chief Mage’s castle and reduced to little more than a lab rat, Sunaya resists his attempts to analyze and control her at every turn. But she soon realizes that to regain her freedom and catch the killer, she must overcome her hatred of mages and win the most powerful mage in the city to her side.
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*Important note for readers: This book is “new adult” fantasy, not “adult” fantasy. Therefore it contains mild violence, swearing, and sexual references more appropriate for someone who reads new adult novels than traditional fantasy. Despite this, the romance in this series is “slow burn”, and there is no sex in this particular novel.
“The Baine Chronicles” book 1,
Somehow Sunaya ends up under the protection and tutelage of Chief Mage Iannis, plus his almost constant companion wolf shifter Fenris; although it’s unheard of for the snobbish mage race to associate with inferior shifters. She also has the opportunity to continue on with her investigation into the murder of her mentor, and in doing so uncovers a sinister plot to create a war between the shape shifters and humans.
This is a good start to a new urban fantasy series. Sunaya is a strong feisty heroine plus she has some interesting and useful friends. Her initial loyalties are obvious, but during the course of her investigation and her developing relationship with Iannis, she (and the reader) begins to wonder who the bad guys really are. There isn’t any romance at all, but its clear there is a growing attraction between Sunaya and Iannis. There’s still plenty of mystery surrounding Sunaya’s parentage, but hopefully more will be uncovered in book 2 “Bound By Magic”.
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|Well written, engaging and action packed,
I really enjoyed reading about Sunaya’s journey of self and social discovery in the first book of, what I hope will be, a series.
Naya’s tenacious and easy to like, while surrounded by characters who have their own depth and back story. I’m looking forward to seeing how they continue to develop as the story unfolds in the next book.
I’d recommend this to anyone who likes action packed, fantasy novels and I’d liken it to the Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton or the Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison. In which company it certainly holds its own!!
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|Loved it and can’t wait to read the next,
The main character in this book is a shifter called Sunaya, or Naya which is the nickname she goes by. She is a hybrid, not a full blooded shifter and her form is a Jaguar, or a Panther as she prefers to be called. She’s working as an enforcer in a world where humans, shifters & mages coexist, albeit not necessarily happily. The action and the mystery, which is the main theme running through the series, kicks of straight away and dragged me straight into the story that I didn’t want to put it down. The side characters in the book, be they friend or for, also have substance to them and help to drive this story in a direction which keeps you engaged throughout.
The enter the hot, powerful but brooding male lead, and possible love interest, Iannis. What I loved about the book is that love is not the main theme of the story, but we are getting a slow build up of sexual tension between the two characters. It contains those kind of scenes between the two where you feel your own cheeks staring to warm up with the intense attraction between them but just when you think something might happen they get interrupted. I actually love that kind of romance where they’re not immediately jumping on each other and are both fighting the attraction between them, but it’s so strong that they keep finding themselves in situations where they’re drawn to each other. So far nothing has happened between the two, but for me that makes the anticipation of something you feel for sure will happen so much sweeter, I just hope it’s not drawn out too long over the series as that can start to get boring.
For me this first book in the series contained just the right amount of intrigue, mystery and romance. The female lead epitomises my favourite type of heroine in a book in that she is capable of defending herself and has a sometimes too snarky tongue (this is my favourite kind of character as I can’t stand a simpering female who doesn’t stand up for herself).
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it gets the full five stars from me. If you also love these types of books then I recommend picking it up. If you’ve never read a book like this before then I recommend this as the first one for you to pick up and try as I can guarantee you’ll love it.
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